Donetsk Republic confirms scheduled POW exchange

DONETSK, September 14. /ITAR-TASS/. An exchange of prisoners of war between Donetsk self-defense fighters and the Ukrainian army will take place on Sunday evening as planned, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) First Vice-Premier Andrei Purgin said.

“Nothing has changed so far. The exchange is to take place at 17 hours local time today in the area of the settlement of Konstantinovka near Donetsk,” Purgin said.

DPR representatives earlier said that captured militias and Ukrainian troops would be exchanged under the formula “65 for 65”.

The first official exchange of POWs took place on Friday when 37 men from each side were released. The prisoners of war were exchanged near Konstantinovka located some 60 km (37 miles) south of Donetsk.

All in all, official Kiev and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics are planning to exchange up to 1,500 prisoners of war.

The tripartite Contact Group for the settlement of the Ukraine conflict comprising Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics agreed in Minsk on September 5 on a ceasefire in Ukraine’s embattled southeast.

The agreement came into force at 6:00 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday, September 5.

The Contact Group met two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a seven-point plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine.

Putin's peace plan envisages a ceasefire to be observed by all the armed formations in the southeast of Ukraine, the withdrawal of armed formations to a safe distance from settlements, exercising international control over ceasefire, non-use of the Air Force against peaceful civilians, an exchange of prisoners of war on the "all for all" basis, opening humanitarian corridors and dispatching repair teams to the region to restore the ruined infrastructure.